"this is the day,

this is the day,

that the lord has made

that the lord had made

i will rejoice

i will rejoice

and be glad in it

and be glad in it"

i had to sing this to myself this morning. you see I'm not a morning person, I'm really not a night owl anymore either. i like to sleep to much :) BUT my children, especially Raelyn, seems to be getting up earlier and earlier each morning. this isn't a huge problem, but she insists on waking everyone else up really early with her. so both Rae and Brenna were up before 6 this morning. this made me very grumpy to say the least.... so i needed to get myself out of a bad mood and give myself a restart... ever have those mornings? they are probably a once a week occurrence here at our house. But the song did help! i should be giving thanks for the new day and that my kids are healthy enough to get up and be happy in the mornings.

so now on to Volcanos :)

the kids worked together to make a volcano at Raelyns 6th birthday party... to see the other things we did click here and here.

to make the volcano you will need:

1 plastic water or soda bottle

tin foil

a pan to put it in

play dough to form your volcano

gravel, dried peas, and cut branches for decoration

what we did:

1. i set the bottle in some of the play dough in the middle of the pan

2. then used to tin foil to make the shape of the volcano

3. then we gave each of the kids some play dough to form around the tin foil to make it look more realistic

4. after they worked on the volcano part, i gave them black gravel (from the pet department) and a bag of dried peas to use to make the surroundings of the volcano.

5. i had gone out in our back yard a little earlier and cut some small branches off of our bushes and they used them like trees to decorate.

- it really looked cool. they did a great job all working together.

then we ERUPTED the volcano! they loved this part!

what you need:

1/2 cup of water

vinegar

1/4 cup of baking soda

couple of drops of red food coloring (if you don't do enough drops, it might turn out pink, our lava was a little on the pink side)

3 drops of dish soap

what you do:

1. add the food coloring and dish soap to the water and then pour into the bottle

2. add the baking soda in the bottle

3. start slowly pouring the vinegar into the bottle

4. sit back and watch :)

we did this over and over because they loved it so much, we just kept adding a little baking soda and then vinegar in the bottle.

this is great for explaining a chemical reaction for a science lesson... click here to see how else we have experimented with chemical reactions.

multitudes on monday

this weekend was nice, it seemed like maybe what normal people do on the weekend, enjoy each other, running a few errands, but mostly, no plans! it seems like our weekends are usually as busy as the rest of the week and it that just wears us all out. this past weekend was a nice break from the hustle and bustle.

so i continue my list:

13- thankful for slow weekends to enjoy my family

14- that dave and i got to work on a project together. i love working with him.

15- for protecting raelyn when she fell from a very high spot this weekend

16- for friends who show me what trusting in the lord and his plans is all about

17- thats some plans are coming together for dave and i to take a trip together

18- pancakes for breakfast sunday morning (that i didn't have to make or clean up)

19- thankful that baby slept through the night even though she was running a slight fever

20- for garrets continued progress in school

21- for raelyns ease with school

i pinned it, i did it - birthday parties

DINOSAUR SNOW GLOBES:

i didn't get many pictures of the kids making these at the party so brenna and i made another one yesterday to show you what to do.
what you need:

- plastic toy of choice

- confetti

- sequins

- glitter

- water

- glycerin (or baby oil...i used the glycerin but baby oil would be less expensive and i found some sites that said that worked fine.)

- jar with a lid (think about using what you might already have, babyfood jar, spice jar, ect. since i didn't have enough of the same type of jar for the party i found these jars at Hobby Lobby. i got them for a dollar each since all their glass wear was 50% off... bonus!)

- glue to seal your lid (not pictured) I used a two part epoxy you can find at the craft store or walmart.

what you do:

1. Add your toy, glitter, confetti, sequins. the glitter floats the best since it is the lightest.
2. Add your glycerin (this is what will make your sparkly things float) i filled my jars about 1/3 full with the glycerin.
3. Fill the jar the rest of the way with regular water.

4. Seal your lid. i used a two part epoxy that i found at Hobby Lobby. you don't want your little ones removing the lid and having everything spill out.
5. Shake and enjoy :)

click here to see where i got this great idea from.

dinosaur rocks

or eggs, or fossils... what ever you want to call them.

they were fun, they were easy and they were inexpensive to make.

here's what you need:

1 cup of dirt

1/2 cup of sand

1/2 cup of used coffee grounds

1 1/4 cups of flour

3/4 cup of salt

plastic dinosaurs

water

(you don't have to look hard for sand or dirt, just go in your backyard. mine was full of leaves and sticks and i just think it added to the effect)

FYI: i doubled this recipe and it made enough to make 12 rocks.

and this is what you do:

1. Mix together dirt, sand, coffee grounds, flour and salt.

2. Slowly stir in water until you get a dough like texture.

3. Mold the dough around each of the plastic dinosaurs.

4. Let it air dry for a few days or place in the oven at 200 degrees for about 2 hours, flipping once after one hour. ( I did mine in the oven and they turned out great!)

during the party we gave each child a rock, a small block of wood and a wooden skewer. they used the block like a hammer and the skewer like a chisel. i was pleased with how long it took them to get into them. the perfect about of time, not to hard and not to easy.

of course i found this idea on Pinterest. Yeah for pinterest!

dinosaur birthday party

oh man, the party was so much fun. we just had a small group so we were able to do lots of fun projects. raelyn had three girl friends from school, two boy friends from church and her brother and sisters at her party. hard to get a picture of everyone, below is the best i got :)

i set up our sun room for the party. it was a rainy day and this room gave us the most amount of natural light. we had four tables set up with burlap on the tables then i got some of that crunchy paper you fill gift baskets with and plastic dinosaurs we had already to decorate the tables.

for the activities we made a volcano with play dough and then decorated it with rocks and trimmings from our bushes outside to make it look like an actual landscape. they did a great job. it looked really cool. more details on how i made the play dough and how we erupted the volcano coming soon.

i LOVED seeing raelyn have a good time with her friends!

we also dug for dinosaur bones
we made snow globes
and ate like dinosaurs (carnivores and herbivores)
more details on the projects coming soon. they were all really easy and inexpensive. i can't wait to share them with you. also.... there were a few pinterest fails that happened this time around, not everything turned out as perfect as i had hoped, BUT we all still had a good time and i could laugh it off :) it's good to laugh at yourself often.

multitude on mondays

im gonna try something new again, since i can't seem to keep up with posting all the things I'm thankful for at the end of each post i will try to do it here on Mondays. the book that inspired me start listing the things I'm thankful for is called One Thousand Gifts and you can click on the image above to take you to the authors blog. it is really inspiring.... so often i find myself in a place of self pity or just feeling down, i know this is the complete opposite of what God wants from his children. he has promised us that he has our best interest in mind and that all things he sends our way are for our good and his glory, and by being thankful for the big things and the little things it keeps me always aware of what He is doing in my life and the world around me.

so i begin my list for 2012:

1- sunshine today

2- temps in the 60's in january

3- garrets fantastic week of school last week

4- really fun birthday party for my 6 year old this weekend.

5- amazing husband that helped so much with the party

6- making progress on my goals at the gym

7- healthy kids at the moment

8- finding some books i have enjoyed reading

9- raelyns toothless smile

10- jori loving her daddy

11- garret getting third place in the pine wood derby again this year

12- brenna beating me in a fun new game twice today

6 year old portraits

yesterday after school i did a really quick photoshoot with my six year old! it was freezing so we moved fast :) but i just can't get enough of these pictures. they all show a different side to her little personality and i love it. click on the photos so see them larger.

"mom, its freezing!"

"cold, cold, cold"
love her little hands.
warmer and happier :)

being silly :)

dancing
looking beautiful... take my breath away
playful


you made me a very happy momma taking some photos with me. you were a trooper. i love you so much.... "never lettin' go"

i pinned it, i did it - birthday parties

DINOSAUR INVITATION

pinterest is so fun. i am still amazed at what all comes up when i do a search for something. raelyn said she wanted a dinosaur birthday party, and with Pinterest's help i was able to fill an entire board with lots of fun decorating and activity ideas for her party.

here are the invitations i came up with after a little "pin"spiration.

here is the original invite that i thought was so cute.

her party is this saturday. I'm really looking forward to it. it is just going to be a small number of kids (mostly my own :) so we are going to do some fun projects and crafts. can't wait to share it all.

happy pinning!

six years ago, today

january 18th, our first daughter was born. she was over a week late! that little booger was snuggled up in there. i tried lots of different things to get her here earlier but Gods timing was perfect. we did not know ahead of time if she was a boy or girl. i remember the midwife saying as she walked out of the room that the heart rate was good and strong and a little on the fast side. i tried to think back on all i read, and thought i remember faster meaning girl. dave said all along that it was a girl. i didn't really have a feeling one way or another. i delivered her naturally and with no pain meds. the nurse said, "dad, you were right, it's a girl!", but soon after she was born i had a problem with my bleeding. i had lost a lot of blood. so while they took care of me, they took raelyn to the nursery. once i was feeling better i wanted her back in my arms so badly. she was a beautiful chubby baby with lots of dark hair. it is so hard to believe that was 6 years ago....

and now, six years later, she is anything but chubby and has thin straight hair just like her momma. but she sure still loves to curl up in our laps, almost as small as when she was born :) she promises her daddy that she will still sit in his lap all balled up even when she is 30 :) she is out with her daddy right now eating a special breakfast of donuts and chocolate milk to celebrate this great day.

this morning, i re-read the post i wrote for her birthday last year and it brings back so many memories and she is still just as precious to us.

raelyn you are just thriving in kindergarten and learning is a breeze for you. i pray this will continue and that you will grow not only in academic wisdom but of the wisdom of your heavenly father that loves you so much, that he gave his life for you. we are so proud of the young lady you are becoming and are honored to have you be part of our family. love you lots rae rae!

i pinned it, i did it - kids crafts

TOILET PAPER ROLL OWLS:

(from left to right: first two are brennas, orange one is mine, next two are raelyns and the last two are garrets)

these were super easy and fun for the kids. i collected toilet paper rolls for a little while. honestly didn't take to long to get this many. with 6 people in the house we go through a lot of toilet paper.

what you need:

toilet paper rolls

paint and paint brushes

markers

what you do:

1.fold the top two edges of the roll into each other, this forms the ears of the owl, you can tape or glue them in place at this point if you want. we did not. they seemed to stay in position just being folded

2. paint your owls a solid color

3. when paint is dry, use a marker to draw on the features of the owl

- i let the kids use a sharpie marker for this step. they LOVED using the Sharpies and thought that was the best part. normally the Sharpies are for mommy only :)

i love how they turned out. the kids loved creating them and they we stuck them all over our christmas tree. they would be a fun project any time of the year though.

here is my original pin:

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